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Mystery
Mystery Summary Mystery - Short Summary Riftcraft is a dangerous form of dark magic that involves opening portals to other realms. The abandoned castle that the academy has been using used to be a riftcraft research lab, which is why there are dozens of anchored portals in the catacombs. Trefoil Academy returns to the no longer hidden castle in order to defend it against the Witch Hunters and their forces. Failure, at best, will result in at least one hostile realm invading ours. At worst, the apocalypse. While students are under siege and preparing for the final battle to break the siege, each house’s alumni are looking for rare ingredients for a potion that seriously help them in both handling the siege as well as the race for the Doomsday Devices. Mystery - Objectives: Main Objective: To successfully prepare and defend the castle from the Witch Hunters while under siege. The final battle takes place on Friday, and the outcome is based on the students’ preparations during the week. Optional Objective: Each house commands a remote team made of their alumni. The alumni teams are seeking to collect rare ingredients that the students need for a scrying potion. If the students craft the potion on Thursday, it will reveal the location of the map pieces to 1 of the 2 Doomsday Devices as well as a powerful item that will help the students with the siege. Mystery - Long Summary: Three years ago, the villainous Westgaard Bloodline destroyed Hogwarts castle and forced Trefoil Academy of Magery and Sorcery into hiding. Other wizarding schools were too scared of the Westgaards to host the academy. Two years ago, the academy found and eventually took sanctuary in an abandoned castle that had an ancient unplottable ward around it. The ward had originally been set up since the castle hosted several anchored gates to other realms for it was a former research lab into the ancient dark practice of riftcraft. The academy began to explore different realms and learn new things about the castle. Meanwhile, Westgaards managed to have their scouts infiltrate the castle and confirm the academy’s existence. However, Westgaards were unable to bring the ward completely down by force since the energy was the strongest on the outer layer. Last year, the Westgaard Bloodline sent a trojan horse in the form of a technomancy device. Tricked into believing that the device would protect the academy from the growing witch hunter threat, the students activated it. Rather than serve as a barrier, the device was a beacon that punch through the ward from inside and brought it down. The castle was no longer hidden. The castle is still home to the numerous anchored gateways and should not fall into the nefarious hands of either the Westgaard Bloodline or the Witch Hunters. Left with no other choice, Trefoil Academy of Magery and Sorcery returned to the castle in order to defend it from the invading army. The current students and faculty are now under siege and trapped with a massive army advancing down upon them. However, all hope is not lost. While the current student and faculty scout for intel and gather resources to help them against the pending attack (aka final dungeon crawl), the alumni have banded together under former Headmistress Belle Dewitt’s leadership. The alumni have offered their assistance in the hunt for the rare ingredients the Academy needs to brew the scrying potion. Each day, the houses will vote what the hunting party does next in an effort to recover those rare ingredients. Once the students have brew the potion, they will be able to identify the location of all the map pieces. The reassembled map would lead the academy to the assembled Doomsday device that was buried by the academy’s founders. Resources For the 2020 Summer Session Mystery, you may wish to review the following pages in particular: * Witch Hunters * Heru Cipher * Whispers of the Void * This page: Doomsday Artifacts, Fragments, Shards * Westgaard Bloodline * Vek Bloodline Prophecies There are two major prophecies that are occurring in this universe: * The Second Coming * The Heru Cipher Doomsday Artifacts, Fragments, and Shards The Westgaards are after the two Doomsday Devices. With this power at their fingertips, no one will be able to stand against them including the academy, the Veks or their allies. In the universe is in jeopardy, and we must not let them get to the map or the doomsday artifact before us. What is it? Doomsday Artifacts are two devices that were both created thousands and thousands of years ago and are unimaginably powerful. One device is fully assembled while the other device is not. The fully assembled device has only been used once. After seeing the devastating amount damage that it caused, the assembled device was hidden away and the unassembled device’s components were scattered. Each device is made up of three components: 1) 13 shards The 13 shard shards are very powerful horcruxes and serve as a stable power source for the device. The Fragments will pull the energy they need from the horcruxes rather than the surrounding environment, allowing them to function at their complete intended capacity. 2) Fragments Each fragment is powerful on its own and in different ways. Some fragments have the ability to control other people’s minds while others grant immortality. It is the combination of the fragments that influence how the Doomsday Device operates. Without the shards, the Doomsday Device will run at half-power until all of the available energy has been drained (from what living happens to be within range), and then stop. 3) The Frame It is harmless by itself. It simply holds the shards and fragments. Why was it created/Why hasn’t it been used again? What started out as a mere scientific curiosity and a hypothetical challenge soon became a matter of essential necessity. No one had anticipated that the invading forces from other realms would break through the barrier. Facing a life or death situation, those remaining survivors chose life. Knowledge is power. Taking the collected knowledge that had been gathered, one of the doomsday artifacts was fully assembled and used. When it was used, it unleashed a massive black wave that caused a devastating that expanded well beyond this realm. It damaged the fabric of the universe itself, and ever since then, the World Tree has steadily been decaying. The World Tree will not survive another encounter like that. If it completely dies, then the barriers between all the realms collapse. Where is the assembled Doomsday device? Heru’s coworkers saw to the task of scattering the fragments and shards after seeing the first doomsday artifact’s destruction, so no one would be tempted to repeat their folly. However, there was still the matter of the fully assembled artifact still needed to be dealt with. They tried to dismantle it but could not. It was Heru’s successors who took up their teacher’s unfinished burden and took the responsibility for protecting it. For generations, each of Heru’s successors took their life-long task with due seriousness. Until one day, one mentee noticed her mentor was developing an increasingly unhealthy obsession with the First Doomsday Artifact. The mentee grew fearful that her mentor would attempt to repeat Heru’s folly. She stole the assembled artifact from its vault before fleeing into the night. While on the run, the mentee had begun to hear tales of four renowned and talented mages. These mages were Wilona, Henri, Luana, and Orthia. In addition to forming Trefoil Academy, the four mages were dedicated to the task of safeguarding dangerous magical artifacts. When the four academy founders attempted to dismantle the First Doomsday Artifact, they found they could not. It kept releasing increasingly dangerous flares of energy. Left with no other option, they opted to try to hide it. While none of the founders were Blood Heralds, one of the founders had close ties with the leader of the Blood Heralds. Enlisting their help, the Doomsday Artifact was hidden. Unknownst to the academy founders, their Blood Herald ally made a map to the location. As an additional security measure, the map was then destroyed and its pieces scattered. A tracer was placed on the map pieces so that a compass could be used to pinpoint the location of the pieces if the map ever needed to be reassembled. This compass is contained in a book known as “Whispers of the Void”. Where is the unassembled Doomsday device? For simplicity’s sake, each component will be addressed separately. 'Shards' The academy had discovered and then lost the thirteen shards. Heru Cipher had predicted their thief and the academy’s rediscovery of each shard. Here is what is known thus far about each of the shards and who they belong to. # RECOVERED BY THE ACADEMY (2018): A necklace: Bane Quinn - Keep it safe. . . :) # A dagger: Winmore Heliot # A bracelet: Rexx Shadowsoul # A box: Alistair Strain # A ring: Butler Norwood # A headpiece: Emmit Zul # A ring: Elaine Cloven # Unknown: Protective case was not unlocked - Porcelain Maleficum # RECOVERED BY THE ACADEMY (2019) A pendant: Ursula Cross # A pin: Cassara Roseberg # Unknown: Protective case was not unlocked - Fatima Brevil # An armband: Lillith Barclay # Unknown: Protective case was not unlocked - Kali Trevils Shards The shards are essentially like Horcruxes. They contained the trapped essence of powerful dark mages. Necklace: Bane Quinn was a dark mage who happened upon a strange fox with whom he forged an instant bond. It instructed him in casting spells and became his closest, most trusted companion. At a young age, those around him, whether realized that his intellect was more than mere precociousness. As his sense of curiosity became dangerous, those responsible for him pushed him into studying magic in the hopes that he would find infinite puzzles to solve. In his adolescent years, he then was possessed by a fiend who lent him even more raw power at a time of great need. This experience tainted his body and mind and changed his life. Some part of the fiend remained inside him like an old friend, influencing him toward destructive ends. More than one city was destroyed as a result before he was executed. Dagger: Winmore Heliot was greatly feared as a dark mage. For most wizards, magic is an end to which all studies strive, but not for him. For him, magic is a means to an end—and that end is knowledge. His desire to know all of the secrets of the world requires the ability to cross continents in a blink, ride the winds, breathe water like a fish, and survive any kind of trap. His unquenching quest for knowledge has made you ever ready for danger. One of his greatest influences was a sentient undead creature, a grave knight. He encountered it on several occasions and survived… mostly unscathed. Through this strange relationship, Winmore learned of its mortal life, giving him perspective on his own life. He had sworn an oath or vow that was important to someone else, but he did not keep his promise. Bracelet: Rexx Shadowsoul was revered as a dark mage. He was a peculiar-looking man—strong, unkempt, and often clad in an old coat. He wore a silver ring in the shape of a serpent and the folk often claimed could raise the dead. This supposed necromancer used his undead to enforce his own brand of law, earning him the nickname “Black Constable.” It was said that sailors would buy wind from him to ensure a safe journey. He could also send storms their way if he felt offended. At the height of his power, it was said that the city’s citizens would seek him out to solve their legal troubles even before they went to the police. Despite his unrivalled clout, legend says that he met a sudden and mysterious end. Box: Alistair Strain was a revolutionary dark mage who altered the balance between the neutral and dark magic branches. While practitioners everywhere hailed his numerous advances, mainstream society does not look kindly upon his due to his numerous hideous experiments. Ring: Butler Norwood was highly respected and highly feared dark mage. It was said to go into trances. His eyes would roll back in his head, and he would later come around feeling refreshed and with knowledge of future and distant events. He used these predictions to gain increasing leverage over the town. It was also said he was a necromancer who dug up graves for his arts. According to stories, Norwood would go to the local cemetery during storms and cry into the wind, hailing distant ships at sea. When in a benevolent mood, his voice could be heard by captains thundering above storms, telling them the right course. Other times, when a captain ran afoul of Norwood, he would curse them and send storms to capsize their ships. Headpiece: Emmit Zul was a dark mage who had been executed over 48 times. The original execution for publicly humiliated and scandalized someone with slanderous information. Each time she was supposed to die, someone else died in her stead. Ring: Elaine Cloven was a dark sorceress. When she reached adolescence, she wanted power and she wanted it immediately. She didn't have the patience or tolerance to endure endless years of boring theory and formal magical training, so she offered up her body and soul in an invocation to an entity that would grant her desire. In her circle of disparate associates, there was someone everyone knew. This person collected friends like trophies, and she had contacts in every social or professional circle. Through this connection, Elaine continued to meet and associate with a wide variety of people in every walk of life. Until Elaine betrayed someone who trusted her. Unknown: Porcelain Maleficum was a dark sorceress, who was guided by a hag who instructed her in the arts of spellcasting, potions, charms, and hexes. Her affinity for magic has made her somewhat crass and arrogant, though some find her blunt disposition charming or worthy of respect. The air of superiority surrounding her was palpable and allowed her to use her intellect to cow others at times when lesser individuals might barely get a word in. A town’s worth of deaths was attributed to her. Pendant: Ursula Cross was a dark sorceress. When she came of age, a coven of witches initiated her into their circle because she had shown great promise. After her initiation ritual, she changed on a fundamental level. Her childhood innocence ended the moment she realized that someday you would die. This revelation came to her at the deathbed of a beloved relative. She spent the rest of her life trying to master magic in order to change this most universal fate from stealing her last breath away. One of her associates committed crimes regularly. He regaled her with many stories of daring robberies and break-ins—and perhaps even murders. She learned most of the criminal element from him, and he trusted her as a friend. It was that knowledge that she counselled her sister, an otherwise innocent person who trusted her, toward adverse choices. Pin: Cassara Roseberg was a dark shaman. For reasons we may never understand, an otherworldly entity took possession of her in her formative years. Since then, her mortal body has been the vessel for this mysterious power. From that point on, magic came alive the first time she held a magic item. The notion of extraordinary magic resting within something as seemingly ordinary as a ring, amulet, or stoppered vial changed the way she viewed the world, and ever since she possessed a sense of curiosity and awe for all magic items. One of her associates had such a lust for knowledge that she could never be satisfied with simple answers or obvious solutions. This desire for knowledge frequently exceeded her need for companionship, but Cassara was the single exception. However, that friend was caused to suffer by Cassara’s own inaction and excessive recklessness. Unknown: Fatima Brevil was a dark shaman. In her youth, there was something she fervently desired— revenge. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't obtain that which she coveted. Only when she turned her eye to ancient tomes and ruins and experimented with strange powers beyond her comprehension was she able to get what she wanted. Prior, she was bullied or excluded throughout her life because she lacked physical power and fighting prowess. To compensate, she turned to transmutation magic. There was a relative she was especially close to. To her, this person was the meaning of family. He helped shepherd her into adulthood, teaching her everything she knew about the world. She was bound to his memory until she was betrayed. From then on, she used sensitive knowledge or threats to force someone's cooperation. Armband: Kali Trevils is often referred to as the dark merlin. He served six different emperors as master over the good and evil. As resident court wizard, he oversaw matters of divination, protecting the Japanese emperor with rituals to banish evil spirits and illnesses provided he liked them. If he didn’t, they disappeared sooner than expected. Unknown: Lillith Barclay was thought to be the incarnate of darkness itself. This dark mage. She had lived an ordinary life until one-day catastrophe struck and she called out desperately to any power that would come to her aid. The entity that gave her this power was sinister in nature, but ever since she called it, the being remains close to her. Later, Lilith learned that magic was her destined path before she was even born, and both her family and those who know of her lineage had not supported this notion. They sought to keep her isolated but had failed. One of her close associates was a jester who mocked propriety and custom, instead engaging in wild and somewhat random actions from time to time. After a while, she learned that there was simple wisdom to this foolery—a careless worldview that taught her how to cast off the concern. However, history will never forget what happened when she allied with a destructive dragon that wiped out an entire kingdom. 'Fragments' The maximum number of fragments that the frame can support is 36. The number of fragments needed to assemble the device depends on how the user approaches the frame. However, the more fragments that are used, the powerful the doomsday device will become. Extremely powerful magical artifacts should be assessed for the possibility of being a fragment. These artifacts are powered from within rather than draw upon an external ignition source. 'Frame' It is unknown at this time. The academy is on the search for any information that may shed light upon this. Some of the factions, particularly those prone to the collecting of information, may be able to provide some assistance. It was last rumored to be buried in an underwater cave. 'Map Pieces' The founders of Trefoil Academy of Magery and Sorcery were approached and their assistance requested to help with the destruction and subsequent hiding of the assembled Doomsday device. Luana Artemis belonged to a descendant bloodline called the Varig Bloodline. This was a descendant bloodline of the Vek Bloodline. (A descendant bloodline is an offshoot of an older bloodline. A family branch gets large enough that it is able to support itself. A descendant bloodline may be established either peacefully or through open armed conflict. Normally, it is the first for the latter is rarely successful.) Luana Artemis’s fifth cousin was the leader of the Blood Heralds. It was because of this blood connection that prompted the academy founders to approach the leader of the Blood Heralds, 293821, for assistance in hiding the assembled doomsday artifact. The assembled doomsday artifact was hidden in 1450. During this time, the leader of the Blood Heralds, 293821, order the creation of a map in case the assembled doomsday device needed to be retrieved. She had disagreed with her fifth cousin, Luna Artemis, that it would forever remain buried because of the Heru Cipher. To make sure that the pieces would not be forever lost in time, the map was then divided up into 25 different pieces. Each map piece was marked and a tailored scrying potion recipe was created just for those markers. The clues to the recipe were then placed within the diary of her status partner. The diary was called Whispers of the Void. When Lady Kerowyn Vek was buried, her status partner was also buried with her in a tomb that was guarded by a Sphinx. Whispers of the Void is an ancient diary that contains many long lost secrets. One of the secrets is a scrying potion recipe that can be used to identify the general location of all the map pieces. It is the diary of Aziza Fiak of the Vek Bloodline. She was alive when the assembled Doomsday artifact was buried in 1450 and was the status partner of the head of the Vek Bloodline, Lady Kerowyn Vek aka 293821.